CITIZENS throughout the world have expectations, and in many instances these are common. Persons expect, for example, to have the opportunity to acquire appropriate education and skills in furtherance of employment and economic opportunities, to meet at least basic needs. Humankind is socialised to toil, and its members will always have the desire to compete with their peers in doing good, or outmatching the other in growth and development.As people vote for government, national or local, they expect to be giving up some responsibilities to formal institutions and individuals who would develop and craft programmes that would benefit the society. Inherent in such programmes is the creation of opportunities for man to work. This does not just mean legislating laws to regulate the marketplace, but developing and implementing programmes that can attract local and foreign investors to make necessary investments. These programmes should include incentives in the manufacturing, natural resources, and services sectors.
In an area such as housing, citizens would expect assistance by way of programmes that would enable them to own a home. Such programmes would require meeting the needs of the demographics in the society; for instance, housing for the retirees, employed, middle income and low income, which are areas that need to be addressed by every government. As the Government speaks about building communities in its quest to drive the housing programmes, citizens would expect proper all-weather roads; a continuous flow of potable water; reliable electricity; access to shopping, community and recreational centres, which are considered necessity.
The idea of building communities is not new to Guyana, and has its genesis in the Forbes Burnham Government’s Feed, Clothe and House (FCH) the Nation programme. For instance, in Georgetown there exist the communities of South Ruimveldt, North Ruimveldt and Festival City, all of which were built with all-weather roads, proper drainage, shopping plaza and recreational centre. Whereas in today’s circumstance the plaza may be considered small, in the period when it was constructed, it was appropriate to meet the needs of those communities.

In the area of health, every person expects optimum health services, which requires building a health network using the data collected nationally to meet the needs of each demographic and community. As the developing world calls for its citizens to return and participate in the development of their respective countries, the availability of health services has always been an influencing factor in making the decision to relocate.

As people yearn for basic needs, education has always been one of the major hallmarks in the determination of human development. The responsibility for education or having an educated nation is vested in the State. Consequently, citizens will expect the State to always lead the way in guiding education policies and programmes; and those policies and programmes have to be consistent with the nation’s plan. All over the world, the discussion as to the role of government vis a vis the private sector is being discussed. What is being found is that political leaders, while in opposition, see the role of government vastly different from when they are in the Executive. When in opposition, they would call for government to do more for the citizenry; and when the same leaders enter office, they call on the private sector to do many things government ought to be doing. It is this shifting of position that creates problems between the citizenry and sitting governments, which very often represents a lack of understanding of the role of government, and an absence of vision. Expectations are rising. Where people speak about one market place and world built on common philosophy, the United States, for instance, considered the bastion of capitalism, has not been without demands by its citizens to re-examine the role of government in meeting people’s expectations vis a vis the private sector being expected to do so.

The recent campaign by the unassuming outsider Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic presidential nomination, run on the platform of bridging the gap between the rich and the poor and government asserting a more leading role in delivering services to the people, posed a fierce challenge to the formidable Clinton machinery. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, in her effort to unite the democratic factions behind her in her bid for the White House, has embraced some of the principles espoused by Sanders.
Development is a continuous process, and each successive administration, should they recognise the role of government, would seek to build on the successes of past administrations. Post-independent Guyana has seen the FCH as the nation’s development programme. This programme speaks to identifying a path through which a young nation can arrive at a level of self-sufficiency and compete in the marketplace equally as meeting the expectations of its citizens. The FCH planks would have required supporting elements for their achievement, and these include required funding and a healthy workforce. Producing our own fresh local products could have contributed to keeping our manufacturing sector engaged, reducing health risk, and minimising the possibility of contracting non-communicable diseases. Where government once sought to control the commanding heights of the economy, the return on investment from these supplemented the other forms of revenue earnings from taxation, which aided in laying the infrastructure in developing the country. A case in point is the development of roads, bridges and ferries to connect the hinterland to the coastland, rural and urban areas; and farmlands to main roads.
The building of the Lethem road that connects Georgetown to Brazil, which commenced during the Burnham administration, is still to be completed, in spite of successive administrations each seeing and speaking of its necessity. This road was designed to facilitate cross-border trade with an eye on the development of hinterland communities and by extension Guyana. Superficial maintenance will not make it an all-weather road; the foundation has to be improved on, and such would significantly improve trade and development. As society evolves, so, too, will the people and their expectations. It is necessary that such expectations are heeded and factored into the developmental plan of the government.